AEI Looking for "Middle Ground" in Climate Debate

AEI Looking for "Middle Ground" in Climate Debate

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI ) is once again offering $10,000 payments to scientists who will comment on climate change - this time in the search for policy options that will open up a “middle ground” in the debate over climate change policy.

This fascinating-if-true development is reported here on the Science and Politics of Global Climate Change Blog.

For the record, the payment - for essays of between 7,500 and 10,000 words - is comparable to what a middling public magazine might pay for a badly researched piece of journalism. On one hand, if AEI offered more, it might hope to get more senior writers than those who contributed to the recently released Fraser Institute critique of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fourth Assessment Report.

On the other hand, if AEI offered more, we would be even quicker to accuse them of buying science. Their only real option is to proceed in good faith. If they really want to open up a helpful discussion of reasonable policy options, it will become obvious soon enough.

Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.

There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.

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